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Claim: The chairman of the Presidential Tax and Fiscal Policy Reform, Taiwo Oyedele, claimed that the 774 local governments in Nigeria did not receive up to N50 billion in cumulative revenue in 2022.

Verdict: TRUE. According to data from the Bureau of Statistics, less than N50 billion was generated internally in 2022, but not all 774 local governments remitted the revenues they gained within the period.
Full Text
Since its inauguration, the Tinubu-led administration has made some policies to alleviate the economic situation that Nigerians are grappling with, including establishing a committee on fiscal policy and tax reform.
While speaking in an interview on Jan. 17, 2024, during Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily, Taiwo Oyedele, the Presidential tax panel chairman, disclosed that efforts are in place to implement the committee’s recommendations on suspension of some “nuisance tax” among other changes. While defending some of the tax policy reforms, he said that Nigeria’s entire 774 local governments did not remit up to N50 billion in 2022.
He said, “At the moment, according to the Bureau of Statistics, all the local governments in Nigeria that sent reports to them for 2022 didn’t even collect up to 50 billion naira in a whole year. They didn’t collect up to 50 billion.”
When asked for emphasis, he reiterated that his claim was a cumulative calculation for the calendar year 2022. He said this between 9 minutes, 12 seconds, and 9 minutes, 31 seconds.
His assertion was also found here, here, here, and here.
The oddity of the stated amount raises scepticism, considering Nigeria’s expensive governance cost. This prompted DUBAWA to fact-check the assertion.
Verification
DUBAWA checked through the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) for clarifications about the internal revenues that the 36 states, including the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), generated from their local governments in the 2022 calendar year using National Bureau of Statistics data.
While N48,710,221,775.27 was made in 2022, seven states did not remit IGRs from their local governments. These states are Zamfara (with 14 LGAs), Plateau (with 17 LGAs), Katsina (with 34 LGAs), Kaduna (with 23 LGAs), Benue (with 22 LGAs), Adamawa (with 21 LGAs), Sokoto (with 23 LGAs) and the Federal Capital Territory (with 6 LGAs).
This data correlates with Mr Oyedele’s claim that the N50 billion was a cumulative score from all local governments in the country that remitted their IGR. The data covered the internal revenues generated from 614 local governments that submitted reports for 2022, while 160 local governments from the seven states and the FCT’s six local governments did not submit their IGR.
Though we contacted Mr Oyedele on LinkedIn and Twitter for clarifications, we are yet to receive his response when filing this report.
Conclusion
The claim’s data is correct. Available data from the NBS revealed that the country generated about N48.7 billion internally. However, it wasn’t a cumulative figure from the 774 local governments in the country because some states didn’t remit theirs.
Editor’s note: Changes were made to this report. The data for verification was revised, and the previously false verdict was changed to true.